Nothing Says The Future Quite Like 3D Printer Filament

By Dorothy Miller


Very few of the best minds on Earth could have conceived of the radical direction technology has taken in recent years. Fewer still could have imagined that the invention which is set to change everything about our lives would start as a toy for artsy-craftsy technology chasers. Truth is that a revamped copy machine along with a few spools of 3D printer filament is the new recipe for anything.

Those first brave souls to pry open their crate and attempt to comprehend the owners manual barely knew what they held in their hands. They learned how to be inventors for the invention, while the world slept. It was not until average people began to understand exactly how this technology could impact their lives, improve it, before the world began to take notice.

Some of the first things the world saw coming from these machines were Holiday ornaments. Some of them had lights that charged up from sunlight during the day, and many of them had minute, mechanical, moving parts that chimed as they wound their way through a universe of perpetual motion. Those ornaments were very likely the fire lit in many minds, and the technology took an amazing leap none could have foreseen.

As the potential for micro machines became very clear, the leap that erupted from this was something no one could have guessed. As we all know, there is always a percentage of children born with a limb missing. Most often this limb is the hand, and the parents of these children rose out of obscurity when they created moving replacement hands, arms, and feet for their children; printing a series to grow as their child would grow.

As with any new toys that yuppies take a shine to, the variations on materials will expand as long as their credit limits last. One of the next items the world came to behold, printed right in some gamer geeks living room, were musical instruments. Many of them are basic electric and bass guitars, but there are some unique one-of-a-kind gems out there which even their creator was hard-pressed to find a name for.

Clothing designers have even taken a hand at creating the first styles and designs utilizing this medium. There is no end to how this industry, and others, will be forever changed with this technology. From the mind of an artist that utilizes the hands of robotic whimsy, even our clothing is three dimensional now.

Now, here is where the story takes the strangest and most unbelievable twist yet. Some lab geek thought to themselves, what if we reproduced synthesized stem cells in much the same way, through programmed repetition of a design. Now we are looking at a future where we can be as alcoholic as we desire so long as we sober up long enough to print ourselves a new liver.

Now we KNOW we will be pushed to drink because three-dimensional printing has just replaced every warehouse worker, seamstress, artisan instrument creator, and the entire medical community. It would seem that this is telling us it is time for the human race to rethink everything we ever imagined our future could be. There are no limits, but we are going to have to find some new ways to keep ourselves occupied.




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